Feast of Saints Peter and Paul

On June 29 in the Holy Orthodox Church, we commemorate the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the Glorious Apostles (that also means the Apostles’ Fast has ended – this year, thanks to a late Pascha, it only lasted two days!). A couple years ago when we were unable to have a Liturgy due to the priest being away at the Parish Life Conference, we celebrated the Typica and one of our deacons read to us an article by the Archpriest Steven Rogers from The Word Magazine, originally published in 1999. Below is my favorite part:

He will make us who we are supposed to be

Seen together, Saints Peter and Paul teach us a great lesson — that no matter who we are — no matter our backgrounds, our talents, our station in life — if we offer who we are completely to God, He will make us who we are supposed to be. If we offer ourselves completely to God — both our abilities and our limitations — He can and will use us to the glory of His kingdom. If we offer ourselves completely, whether we are a simple fisherman or a towering intellectual, the world will see God within us.

God created us who we are and He came into the world to make us all we can be. Peter continued to be Peter and Paul continued to be Paul, but it was Christ within them that made them into all that God desired them to be.

And so it is with us. If we offer ourselves to God with all our strengths and weaknesses, He will use us to the glory of his Kingdom. As we, the Church of Antioch, gather together to celebrate the feast of our beloved Apostles Peter and Paul, those “luminaries to those in darkness, two rays of the sun,” let us commit ourselves to give all that we are to God as they did, so that like them, we may radiate the love of God into a cold and unbelieving world.

Let us commend ourselves and each other and all our life unto Christ our God.